Russian influence in the CIS continued to increase during 1994. CIS states owed Russia 3.5 trillion rubles at the end of 1993, 1.5 trillion of which was for products in the fuel and energy complex. During 1994 Russia cut back deliveries of oil and natural gas to CIS states, and this led to periodic confrontations with Ukraine.

At a summit in Moscow on April 15, Russia gained approval for its role as peacekeeper and guardian of CIS borders. The Central Asian states, as well as Armenia and Georgia, formally agreed that Russian troops should police their borders jointly with local forces. Ukraine and Moldova signed a memorandum that also moved in this direction. All states agreed that Russia should send troops to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia and urged the UN to support this move. CIS forces, mainly Russian, remained in Tajikistan. Russia was less successful in getting CIS states to contribute to the costs of the peacekeeping forces. Russia won control of about 80% of the Black Sea Fleet from Ukraine. At the April meeting Ukraine became an associate member of the CIS economic union that was formed in September 1993. The planned economic union between Russia and Belarus, welcomed at this summit, did not materialize, however.

On September 9, 10 of the 12 CIS states agreed to form a payments union and an Interstate Economic Committee to deepen economic links. The union represented an attempt to settle payments between member states, many of whom did not have convertible currencies. Aleksandr Shokhin, the Russian deputy prime minister, described the Interstate Economic Committee as an embryonic European Commission. Its main task was to integrate economies and ensure that the multitude of agreements that had been signed by CIS states were implemented. Russia would control 50% of the votes in the committee, with 80% required for passage. Customs barriers were to be lowered, with the eventual goal of a customs union. Ukraine and Turkmenistan expressed reservations about the commitments, however, regarding them as a diminution of national sovereignty.

Leonid Kuchma (see BIOGRAPHIES), who had replaced Leonid Kravchuk as president of Ukraine in July, turned out to be less pro-Russian than expected, adopted a reformist stance, and did not commit Ukraine to the payments union, since it assumed the free convertibility of national currencies at market rates. With its limited associate membership in the CIS, Ukraine enjoyed limited status on the Interstate Economic Committee and participated only in certain discussions. Another CIS summit in October moved cautiously toward closer integration, and a proposed payments and customs union was initiated. Russia and Moldova agreed that Russian troops would leave Moldova by 1997.